On the Media

The smartest, wittiest, most incisive media analysis show in the universe. The weekly one-hour podcast of NPR’s On the Media is your guide to how the media sausage is made. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield examine threats to free speech and gove

The Justice Department just vastly expanded the government’s power to hack into your devices... but you probably haven't heard about it. We examine how this change flew under the radar, and why it could be dangerous. Also, a growing threat to free speech: billionaires using libel suits to damage and destroy media outlets. And, how a fringe conspiracy theory involving pizza is a parable for our time.

After a mistrial this week in the case of Michael Slager, the police officer caught on camera shooting Walter Scott in the back as he ran away, we revisit two interviews we did this summer. Patrice Cullors is the co-founder of Black Lives Matter and Eugene O'Donnell is a former police officer, we spoke to them after two deadly shooting incidents involving young black men targeting police officers.

We devote this hour to a question put to us pretty much daily since election day: How to cover President Trump?

First, we ask the AP, Univision, NPR, USA Today, and other news outlets about how they are defining a relationship with a president-elect who flouts traditional rules, spreads misinformation, and criticizes the press.

Then we turn to language. Listeners help us highlight moments in media coverage that obscure the truth, and journalist Masha Gessen warns of the "impulse to normalize."

Plus, linguist John McWhorter describes the phenomenon of partisan words, and cognitive scientist George Lakoff argues that the principles of journalism need to be redefined... because of how our brains work.

In 1957, Fidel Castro was believed to be dead -- until New York Times writer Herbert L. Matthews conducted an interview with Castro in the Cuban jungle. Matthews' portrayal of a romantic figure and a promising leader was trusted, until Castro revealed himself and his planned revolution as communist. Brooke speaks with Anthony DePalma, author of The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times, about the infamous coverage of Cuba's infamous leader. Also, the OTM guide on how (not) to cover Cuba.

This election season, the media frequently looked to history in an attempt to explain the rise of Donald Trump. We consider how historical parallels don't always serve us well. Plus, revisiting a notorious murder that the press got wrong; the long reach of a WWII slogan; and attempts in Ukraine to whitewash the nation's history. A special hour on memory, both historical and personal, and how what we remember shapes our world.

A few years ago, Brooke spoke with the writer Paul Ford about the remarkable connection between Bing Crosby, magnetic tape, Nazi technology, and the computer hard drive. We're putting it down the podcast feed again this week, just before the Thanksgiving holiday, to get you in the mood. You can read Ford's post about Crosby on the New Yorker Elements blog.

In the months leading up to the election, some fake news stories generated more engagement on Facebook than real news stories. We consider the landscape of misinformation and how to separate truth from fiction.

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The press didn’t see it coming. Or did they? This week, we examine the role of data – and delusion – in this election. Nate Silver reflects on the promise and pitfalls of polling, and Zachary Karabell discusses how financial indicators gloss over the gritty realities of American life. Plus: how a plan to dismantle the electoral college could make elections more democratic, and election coverage more interesting.

It's the morning after in the offices of On the Media. Usually editorial meetings take place in Brooke's office with Bob dialed in on the conference phone. This week we did it in the studio so you can hear the hosts talk about how they are feeling and how they envision the direction of the show in the Trump presidency.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST on iTunes or your platform of choice. You'll receive these behind-the-curtain extras and more right in your feed. (And -- as always -- support your local public radio station.)

The months-long protest against the North Dakota Access Pipeline finally received mainstream attention this week after a misdirection campaign on Facebook, but to what end? Plus, making sense of what you've been told about Russia's role in the election; Bob talks to Glenn Beck about his recent transformation; and the all-too-predictable fallout from hiring partisans as cable news pundits.

One of the most enduring myths of HIV/AIDS history has finally been laid to rest. The so-called "patient zero," a Canadian flight attendant named Gaétan Dugas, was once blamed for igniting the entire AIDS epidemic in America. Media outlets fixated on his sexual promiscuity; the New York Post called him "The Man Who Gave Us Aids."

But new research published in the journal Nature reexamined the original blood samples taken from Dugas in 1983 and found that the strain of the virus he was infected with was already present in the country years before Dugas frequented the gay scene in New York and San Francisco. Bob talks with Michael Worobey, evolutionary biologist and lead author of the Nature paper, about how the patient zero story is an ongoing black comedy of mischaracterization.

The Trump camp is pointing to "oversampling" in the polls as the latest sign that the election is rigged against him. But the pollsters say that's not how polling works. FiveThirtyEight helps separate the conspiratorial from the commonplace in election polls. Plus, a look at what the media get wrong about Trump supporters, a controversial capital punishment rule gets taken up by the Supreme Court, and a Breaking News Consumer's Handbook for poverty.

Ever since his 1992 dark horse candidacy captured nearly 19% of the popular vote, there have been arguments over the real role of Ross Perot. Was he a spoiler candidate, stealing the election from Bush? Did he de-legitimize Clinton's victory by keeping him from winning a majority of the popular vote? Was there anything to learn from Perot's popularity, or was the unpredictable, charismatic, idiosyncratic billionaire just a fluke?

By now you know that Donald Trump likes to claim that the media, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and dead voters are among those rigging the election against him. But he's not the only politician during this campaign to claim the system is manipulated to favor some over others. This week, we explore how elections are and are not rigged. Also, the fourth installment of our poverty series focuses on the strengths and shortcomings of our nation's safety net.

In the midst of an election that has exposed deep and sometimes ugly rifts in American society, WNYC and The Nation have partnered for a new podcast series called "The United States of Anxiety." Each week they look to understand how we arrived at this point by diving deep into the polarized economic, social and political landscape as it exists in communities on Long Island, New York.

This week, we're sharing their latest episode which is all about the politics of being white, male, and working class in 2016. WNYC reporter, Jim O'Grady, takes a road trip through Long Island with writer and former bond trader Chris Arnade about how male Trump supporters are feeling emasculated by the current economic and political climate. Then, The Nation's Kai Wright talks to Italian-American Long Islanders about their families' journeys to whiteness.

Donald Trump deflected questions about sexual assault allegations at the second presidential debate by bringing up the ever-looming threat of ISIS. Yet, a new report on the group's dwindling propaganda output suggests ISIS may be losing its grip in the region. Also, how American media and the Kennedy administration became entangled in a network of tunnels beneath the Berlin Wall. And the third installment of our poverty series focuses on the age-old myth of upward mobility in America.

In the midst of an election that has exposed deep and sometimes ugly rifts in American society, WNYC and The Nation have partnered for a new podcast series called "The United States of Anxiety." Each week they look to understand how we arrived at this point by diving deep into the polarized economic, social and political landscape as it exists in communities on Long Island, New York.

This week, we're sharing their latest episode,which looks at the role of the media in creating a narrative of anxiety in the U.S -- particularly conservative talk radio. First, WNYC's Arun Venugopal visits Patty, a Donald Trump supporter who lives in Long Island, to find out about her media diet and how Trump's messaging speaks to her. Then, WNYC's Matt Katz talks to The Nation's Kai Wright about how conservative media reflects the changes taking place in our country and why its followers are distrustful of mainstream news.

Donald Trump and his surrogates say he's a genius for using the tax code to avoid paying taxes. Does the public agree? We examine the complicated history around fairness and taxes in America. Plus, our series on poverty continues with a look at the notion of the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, and how our welfare policies have been shaped by faulty presumptions.

In this bite-sized OTM, Bob looks at two important news stories that we won't be able to fit into the full-sized OTM this weekend.

First: this weekend, voters in Colombia rejected a peace agreement with the rebel group FARC. It would have brought to end over 50 years of fighting, and polling suggested that Colombians would have approved the deal. The vote has been explained as the triumph of bitterness over common sense, but it could also be seen as a failure of media messaging. Bob talks to Alex Fattal, Assistant Professor in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies at Penn State University, about the role that media has played in Colombia's armed conflict. Fattal is also author of the forthcoming book Guerrilla Marketing: Capitalism and Counterinsurgency in Colombia, from University of Chicago Press.

Then: a rash of clown sightings has spread since the first report of creepy clowns in Greenville, South Carolina in late August. They've been seen from Oregon to New York, from Florida to Missouri. Or have they? Turns out these "phantom clown" sightings have been happening in waves for decades, and they tell us a lot about our own fears. Bob speaks with Benjamin Radford, author of Bad Clowns and a research fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, about our historic and cultural relationship with phantom clown sightings.

Five years into the war in Syria, we examine whether calling the latest horrors "war crimes" will have any effect. Also, why the biggest story following the first presidential debate is about Miss Universe; the un-examined candidacy of Libertarian Gary Johnson; and curbing inmates' rights online. Finally, our series on myths about poverty in America begins in Athens, Ohio, a timeworn stop on the "poverty tour" for politicians and reporters alike.

Today, more than 45 million Americans live in poverty. The problem has been addressed countless times since the nation’s founding, but it persists, and for the poorest among us, it gets worse. America has not been able to find its way to a sustainable solution, because most of its citizens see the problem of poverty from a distance, through a distorted lens. So we present "Busted: America's Poverty Myths," a series exploring how our understanding of poverty is shaped not by facts, but by private presumptions, media narratives, and the tales of the American Dream.

Brooke traveled to Ohio, a state that reflects the varied nature of poverty, to talk directly with people who are poor and understand how they got that way, and why, under current policies, they are likely to stay that way. You'll hear from them over the next several weeks. But first, we examine how the story of poverty gets told -- and whether media attention makes any difference -- with the help of Jack Frech, a longtime Athens County welfare director who has been leading reporters on "poverty tours" of Appalachia for decades.

Songs:

"Ec-Stacy" by Jess Stacy

"Gavotte in A Minor" by Matthew Camidge, arr. by Andy Boden

"Youkali Tango-Habanera" by Kurt Weill; performed by the Armadillo String Quartet

“Busted: America’s Poverty Myths” is produced by Meara Sharma and Eve Claxton, with special thanks to Nina Chaudry. This series is produced in collaboration with WNET in New York as part of “Chasing the Dream: Poverty and Opportunity in America.” Major funding for “Chasing the Dream” is provided by the JPB Foundation, with additional funding from the Ford Foundation.

Three weeks into what’s being called the US’s biggest prison strike ever, very little information has trickled through the razor wire. We examine the challenges of reporting on prisons. Plus, a look at the coverage of protests in Charlotte after a police shooting; the cell phone alerts that drew New Yorkers into a manhunt for a terror suspect; the digital afterlife of an Al Qaeda propagandist; and a quest to examine the life of Peter Thiel.

Spy magazine coined the term "short-fingered vulgarian" in the 80's to describe Donald Trump and it still really, really annoys him. On this podcast extra, we share a segment from an upcoming show produced by our friends at Studio 360 in which current 360 host, and former Spy founder Kurt Andersen reminisces with former Spy editor Susan Morrison about their enduring habit of name-calling.

This election may be remembered as the moment when a nebulous and formerly obscure white supremacist movement known as the "alt-right" was launched into the mainstream. A look at their ascendancy, their role, and their memes. Plus, fact-checking Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" comment; struggling to define Facebook; and the challenges of covering the North Dakota pipeline protests.

In the days and weeks after the towers fell, nothing felt funny anymore. Comedians on late night TV and in the comedy clubs of New York questioned their own judgement. Brooke spoke to Will Ferrell back in 2001 and Marc Maron on the tenth anniversary of the attacks about the place of humor in tragedy. We revisit both conversations on this podcast extra.

Critics have long viewed Hillary Clinton as untrustworthy and dishonest. This week, we revisit a crucial moment nearly 25 years ago that helped set that narrative in motion. Also, pundits say this election season has ushered in the era of "post-fact" politics, but history tells us it's always been that way. Plus, a guide for making sense of Islamophobic media coverage, and a German TV show trying to teach refugees how to fit in.

In September 1966, Gene Roddenberry dispatched the crew of the Starship Enterprise on its maiden voyage through space and time and into the American living room. It was an inauspicious start, but fifty years later the Star Trek universe is still expanding, with a new movie out this summer, Star Trek Beyond. In a vintage OTM piece, Brooke explores the various television incarnations of the franchise and the infinitely powerful engine behind it all: the fan.

A University of Chicago welcome letter criticizing political correctness on college campuses reignited vigorous debate. An examination of the value of tools like trigger warnings and safe spaces. Plus, with just two months until election day, a new Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook for making sense of the polls. And, a history of music in presidential campaigns.

It's the latest and last installment of Bob's Grill, and we've got a special guest chef (it's Brooke).

The year was 2005, and CNN was focused on a big story with wall-to-wall coverage. The story was, of course, The Runaway Bride. Jennifer Milbanks had cold feet and disappeared a few days before her wedding. She made tabloid headlines and left tracks all over the cable news channels, including CNN - which covered her day and night for a week. Coincidentally, the network’s new president Jonathan Klein, had just months before been promising more rigorous journalism and less sensationalism. So OTM called him up. In this interview, Klein and Brooke butt heads over what constitutes news, and whether stories need justification.

Right-wing rumors about Hillary Clinton's health have made their way into the mainstream media, but it's hardly the first time a candidate's health has been in the headlines this year: the press has been scrutinizing Donald Trump's mental state for months. This week, examining the arguments for and against speculating about a candidate's health. Plus, how the dominant media narratives after the Rio Olympics obscure real problems, and how climate change is reshaping the country as we know it.

A special hour on the publishing industry and the resurgence of print--from Amazon’s flirtation with brick-and-mortar bookstores to the success of wholesale suppliers shilling books by the foot as decorative objects. Plus, the mysterious world of novelizations, the subversive history of adult coloring books, and more.

We return to Bob’s Grill this week with a 2011 interview with “sting operation” videographer James O’Keefe, best known for his efforts to discredit institutions such as Planned Parenthood, NPR, the Open Society Foundations, and the community organizing group ACORN. O'Keefe says he's using the tools of investigative journalism, but his videos are full of distorted quotes, manipulated footage, and in some cases outright lies. Bob spoke with O’Keefe shortly after the release of his undercover video of NPR executive Ron Schiller, and took him to task for his, shall we say, creative editorializing.

Political commentators have repeatedly, reliably, been wrong this election season. There was the improbable Bernie Sanders. The inevitable Jeb Bush. The passing-fad Donald Trump. Now that we've landed so far from where we began, we examine why pundits make such bad predictions, and why they probably won't stop.

Welcome to Bob’s grill! Each week this August, you’re invited to join Bob in his backyard to fire up the barbecue and turn up the heat. But, on occasion, a burger and a cold one just won’t suffice. So this week we’re roasting a whole pig.

Hunter Moore is the creator of the now-defunct website IsAnyoneUp.com, an amateur "revenge porn" site with an insidious social networking component. The site featured nude photos submitted anonymously, usually by angry exes looking for vengeance. But rather than just publishing the photos online for the world to see, Moore’s site also included links to the naked person's social networking profiles, further amplifying the shame. In this interview from 2011, Bob grills Moore on why he does what he does.

The Democratic Party and the media are fretting about whether the Green Party will splinter Democratic votes in November. This week, we look at the myths and realities surrounding third parties and consider how "strategic voting" could figure into the coming election. Also, a deep look at the oft-cited narrative that Ralph Nader spoiled the 2000 election for Al Gore.

Plus, Donald Trump's latest skirmish with Khizr and Ghazala Khan has prompted the media to clamor yet again over whether Trump has finally gone too far. Are they missing the point?

Ahhh, summer and grilling. They’re made for each other, right? That’s why all this August you're invited to Bob’s grill: a collection of interviews from over the years when one person takes the role of the chef -- that’s Bob, in the apron -- and the other person….well, you know.

We launch the series with an interview Bob did in 2005 with former New York Times journalist Judith Miller, who became mired in controversy after her faulty reporting on alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and for refusing to testify in the leak investigation of former CIA operative Valerie Plame.

In the wake of the DNC email scandal, reports are surfacing that Russian hackers are behind the hack. But as the media runs with a narrative about Donald Trump's connections to Vladimir Putin, we ask: is it misleading?

Plus: a Breaking News Consumer's Handbook on reporting about migration, both across US borders and around the world -- and what myths persist about the large-scale movement of people.

And reporter Ilya Marritz goes to Germany to learn about how that country's media is reacting to one million refugees and migrants who have arrived in the last year.

Eating like a regular person when you’re on the campaign trail is hard. The cameras are in your face and they really, really want to see you drip grease on your shirt or eat a slice of pizza with a knife and fork or take a big ol’ bite out of a (let's face it) totally phallic corn-dog.

In the coming months, as we watch the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump bandwagons go from town to town --from diners to BBQ’s to hog roasts -- Dan Pashman, host of The Sporkful podcast, wants you to know that every choice the candidates make about food (to slurp or not to slurp), is a thoroughly vetted process.

The divide between the Black Lives Matter movement and the police is often portrayed as unbridgeable. This week: finding common ground and working on addressing the real problems of policing in America.

Plus, reviewing the Republican National Convention as well as conventions past.

And, after Turkey’s failed coup, a Breaking News Consumer's Handbook for how to successfully cover, and carry out, a military coup. And a Turkish journalist talks about what happened when the coup plotters took over his newspaper's offices.

At times, real Brazilian headlines can seem absurd. For example, military police killed a jaguar, the national animal, at an Olympic-torch lighting ceremony; the interim president's new cabinet only has white men; and just weeks before the Olympics, the tourism minister has resigned.

Bob met co-founders Nelito Fernandes and Martha Mendonca at their home in Rio de Janeiro (they're married) to hear about how the Brazilian public has been reading the news through the lens of satire -- and what news is too awful even for jokes.

OTM is in Brazil this week. We delve into the web of challenges ensnaring the country: a recession, crime waves, corruption scandals, the Zika virus... all in the run-up to the Olympic Games. Plus, the complex crises facing the media industry at a time when rigorous reporting is more essential than ever.

And, when 30,000 journalists descend on the country from around the world in just a couple of weeks, many will likely produce facile reports about Rio's notorious favelas. We hear from activists and community journalists trying to wrest back the narrative and spark a debate about policing and race not unlike what's unfolding in America.

The deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, were both captured on video. So were the deaths of Walter Scott, Eric Garner, and so many others. That’s not new. But technology has become more and more sophisticated, and so have the bystanders using it, primed by grim history to turn the camera on, and, increasingly, involve an audience. We explore the role of Facebook Live in the events of the last week and offer you our Breaking News Consumer's Handbook: Bearing Witness Edition, for guidance on how to film the police, wisely and within your rights.

This election season has been rife with misinformation, half-truths, and pure deceit... but lying in politics dates back centuries. This week we devote a whole hour to LIES: the ones our leaders tell us, and the ones we tell ourselves and each other.

The Brexit fallout continues. Before he was mayor of London, Boris Johnson covered the EU... badly. We hear how his reporting created a caricature of Europe, and why that story about Brits Googling the EU is too good to be true.

Plus: two stories of transparency -- good news on FOIA, and bad news on dark money.

And speaking of transparency: do we know enough about the gene editing program CRISPR? Plus, Brooke explores what we learn about cloning from movies and t.v. shows, including Orphan Black (!)

To mark the occasion we have a story about the history of abortion in the US that first aired last winter, when the spread of Zika and the resulting deformities in newborns was causing panic across South and Central America. Abortion is illegal in those traditionally Catholic countries, but so many women were giving birth to babies with microcephaly and the brain damage associated with it, that the UN high commissioner for human rights urged a widespread repeal of abortion bans.

Democrats in the House of Representatives staged a dramatic sit-in this week to protest inaction on gun legislation, but are they just preaching to the choir? This week, we look at bridging the gap over guns in America and how the media can better understand both sides. Plus, new algorithms claim to provide more accurate models for policing and sentencing, but they actually might be making things worse.